11
Social Welfare
WHILE the need for relief and public assistance remains, there are also determined efforts, simultaneous and on a mounting scale, to expand the constructive social services of community develop- ment, youth work, the care and training of the handicapped and the welfare of women and children. The rapid development of these sides of social work, both by the voluntary organizations and by Government, demands more highly trained and skilled workers, if full use is to be made of all other resources; this situation has underlined the inadequacy of the existing facilities for training.
Dr Eileen Younghusband, the eminent authority on social work training, visited Hong Kong in August and made recommendations for the revision of the University and Post-Secondary College courses, with integrated practical training, and for the introduction of systematic in-service courses; the general objects being to extend the opportunities for a career in social work and to raise standards of achievement. Her report has been published and Government and others directly concerned are now studying it. Contributions from the United Kingdom World Refugee Year Committee and the Colony of Bermuda have created a fund of $24 million, the interest from which is to be used to promote social work training. This fund will be valuable for carrying out Dr Younghusband's recommendations in whatever form they may be accepted.
During the year the Social Welfare Department, in co-operation with the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, to which some eighty of the voluntary agencies in Hong Kong are affiliated, began a six months' introductory training course in social work for young people from secondary schools and for workers in voluntary agencies; this included a period of residence at the first Community Centre in a resettlement estate. 40 students attended a six months' course in child care, half of them already nursery